Cylinder deactivation in an internal combustion engine is a process by which a subset of the cylinders of the engine are deactivated completely or partially during prescribed operating conditions. These prescribed conditions include operation of the engine under light load conditions in which cylinder deactivation can improve efficiency or under cold conditions in which cylinder deactivation can force more rapid warm up. When a prescribed condition exists, the engine controller can deactivate one or more cylinders by cutting off fuel supply to each of those cylinders during at least one combustion cycle.